Record #101: Scott Walker’s ‘Scott 2’
You might call Scott Walker the gentile Neil Diamond. Better still, you might call him the free-spirited answer to Frank Sinatra. While the former teen idol’s 1968 record Scott 2 is full of grand, sweeping arrangements featuring symphonic instrumentation, his lyrical content is totally from another planet. Delivered with a smooth, bold vibrato, Walker tells candid and occasionally lightly vulgar tales of his interactions with women and more. There’s “Next,” an account—and I’ve no idea whether or not it’s fictitious—of a young enlisted man’s first passionless and all-too-real sexual encounter with a foreign, disease-carrying prostitute. Pretty heavy, uncommon fare for music so graceful and epic. It’s beautiful, bravado-imbued baroque pop with loads of flawless strings, brass, xylophone and tympani, but it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard—full of “asses” and “broads” and “fags” (he’s not always tasteful) and “opium dens.” Also, it’s absolutely riotous from time to time. Seriously, I laughed uncontrollably at a few of these lyrics. I’d heard the song “Jackie” before—it’s a classic—but I’m very glad I picked up the record to peep in its entirety. Completely unlike anything I’ve heard in a long time.
